quotations about example
Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
MARK TWAIN
The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson
What the world wants is good examples, not so much advice; advice may be wrong, but examples prove themselves.
H. W. SHAW
attributed, Day's Collacon
Though "the words of the wise be as nails fastened by the masters of the assemblies," yet sure their examples are the hammer to drive them in to take the deeper hold.
THOMAS FULLER
The Holy and Profane States
For, now it may be said, I build with good reason, since I follow your example.
PLINY THE YOUNGER
letter to Voconius Romanus, The Letters of Pliny the Younger
Example is far more than precept. It is instruction in action.
SAMUEL SMILES
Happy Homes and Hearts that Make Them
The best teachers of humanity are the lives of great men.
CHARLES HENRY FOWLER
attributed, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers
Men think they may justly do that for which they have a precedent.
CICERO
Epistles
Example moves more than homily, though it be less clamorous.
ELIZA COOK
Diamond Dust
Since truth and constancy are vain,
Since neither love, nor sense of pain,
Nor force of reason, can persuade,
Then let example be obey'd.
GEORGE GRANVILLE
To Myra
Much more profitable and gracious is doctrine by example than by rule.
E. SPENSER
attributed, Day's Collacon
There are bad examples which are worse than crimes; and more states have perished from the violation of morality than from the violation of law.
MONTESQUIEU
Montesquieu's Considerations of the Causes of the Grandeur and Decadence of the Romans
To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while.
JOSH BILLINGS
Josh Billings' Farmers Allminax for the Year 1871
Rules and discourses are dead pictures, but a good example is virtue itself, alive and in motion : we may say a good example is virtue personified.
MOX
The Railway Conductor, vol. 27
Decapitate
Example be made
JUDAS PRIEST
"Decapitate"
A bad example is the best sermon.
AMERICAN PROVERB
In the discharge of thy place set before thee the best examples; for imitation is a globe of precepts.
JOHN LOCKE
"Of Great Place", The Conduct of the Understanding: Essays
We ought to give good examples to our children, because if they see no uncomeliness, they shall be forced to follow goodness and virtue.
XENOPHON
attributed, Day's Collacon
The first great gift we can bestow on others is a good example.
CHARLES MORELL
The Tales of the Genii
Nothing is so contagious as example; never was there any considerable good or ill done, that did not produce its like.
ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Reflections
If thou desire to see thy child virtuous, let him not see his father's vices: thou canst not rebuke that in them, that they behold practised in thee; till reason be ripe, examples direct more than precepts: such as thy behaviour is before thy children's faces, such commonly is theirs behind their parents' backs.
FRANCIS QUARLES
Enchiridon